Bury Your Dead
Looking For Me
Cottage at Glass Beach
Wednesday is the day I participate in Wondrous Words Wednesday. It’s the day we celebrate new words we find as we read. It still amazes me that I keep finding new words every week.
I came across quite a few new words while reading The Tortilla Curtain. (Review coming soon.)
1. rictus: “Everywhere he turned he saw those red-flecked eyes, the rictus of the mouth, the rotten teeth and incongruous shock of gray in the mustache – they infested his dreams, cut through his waking hours like a window on another reality.
Rictus means a fixed grimace or grin.
2. ceanothus: He walked round the front of the car first, scanning the mute unrevealing brush along the roadside – ceanothus, chemise, redshanks — for some sign of what had happened.
Ceanothus is a North American shrub of the buckthorn family, cultivated for its dense clusters of small blue or white flowers.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is the creation of Kathy @ Bermuda Onion. Visit her for more new words.
I knew rictus oddly enough, but ceanothus was totally new to me. I wonder if we have them around here.
I’ve learnt rictus recently, but ceanothus is new for me too.
Ahhh I knew my gardening fancy would come in handy one day. I’ve grown ceanothus before (in Australia). I love the small intense blue flowers and they love a hot, dry garden.
Hi Margot,
I too knew rictus, but I think that comes from watching too many television programmes about autopsies and reading too many thriller books written by ex coroners!
Ceanothus actually rang a bell with me, even though you say the shrub is native to North America … and sure enough, on the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) website, there is a page dedicated to the growing of ceanothus in the UK, although the article’s author is keen to point out that the shrub does need to be planted in a very warm and sunny, south facing position, to survive our inclement seasonal weather conditions.
Thanks for sharing those great words and enjoy the rest of your week.
I knew the first one but had never heard of the second one!